For Hopkins, a second Oscar cements legacy of greatness

He creates history by becoming oldest actor to win the award

Anthony Hopkins has spent a glittering career exploring the full depths of human experience, whether playing the sadistic Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs or a frail and frightened dementia sufferer in The Father. But long before making the transition from psychopathic cannibal to a weakened man facing his own death, the Welsh-born naturalised American had earned his place in acting’s halls of fame with decades of stage and screen performances. “I keep it simple. Just learn the lines and show up,” was how the 83-year-old described his method of acting, preferring to endlessly go over his script so he could “do it without thinking”.